The girls and I took a long car drive yesterday and, because I am a well seasoned motion sickness veteran, who has too many times heard "Mom, my stomach feels funny..." from our backseat, only to enjoy the view of one or the other child spewing as I turn around to respond, I confiscated the electronics about halfway and declared that it was time for the girls to watch out the window for a while. Surprisingly, we had a great conversation about our recent vacation and discussed the possibility of one or more future vacations in upcoming years.
And then my nearly nine year old, 3rd grade daughter asked about something she has heard - is it true that the world is going to end in 2012, Mom? The reality is that I rarely pay attention to apocalyptic crap - I'm not going to waste my life worrying about the end of the world. But I think I was correct when I explained to her that an early civilization (Aztecs?) had the earliest or one of the earliest known calendars and that calendar ended in December 2012. And then I explained to her that people have a choice - you can live your life, and do your best to live your best life, or you can live in fear of the end and what comes (or doesn't come) after. And as many kids do when they ask a deep question, she listened to what I said, she nodded, and then she proceeded to talk about where she'd like to go in 2013. I guess she's decided her "apocaplypse plan" for the time being.
Yay, her! I never listen and always scoff at, as you so well put it, the apocalyptic crap. THe ones tied to some psychic or off beat religious leader are all about fear and money. This current one is the same, I am sure. The thing that amuses me about this current one is, okay so the calendar ended in 2012 - maybe they ran out of "paper" or whatever substance they were using? Seriously, folks? Just because the calendar comes to a last page does not mean time does.
ReplyDeleteand, btw, if it does come to an end, well, that's okay by me too....